Jones Steps Up Her Denial Campaign

Marion Jones has stepped up her vigorous public relations campaign to distance herself from serious doping allegations that threaten to keep her out of the Olympic Games next month.

The triple Olympic champion's lawyers have released a letter from her doctor saying that he had no reason to believe she had taken performance-enhancing drugs, as her former husband, CJ Hunter, has claimed to federal investigators. 'I do not believe that Marion used any type of banned performance-enhancing drugs,' wrote Dr Richard T Ferro, her doctor since 2001.

But Ferro was not treating Jones in 2000, the time Hunter's most serious allegations relate to. According to San Francisco Chronicle , he told investigators Jones used banned drugs during and after the Sydney Olympics.

Her legal team have tried to paint Hunter as a liar and an embittered former husband who has never forgiven her for divorcing him in 2002. They have even asked the US Attorney's office to force Hunter to take a polygraph test and they claim his evidence cannot be trusted because he was banned in 2000 after failing four drug tests, recording record levels for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in one.

'The aggressive barrage against CJ Hunter is unconscionable,' his lawyers, Rusty and Angela DeMent, said last night. 'Mr Hunter has no axe to grind with anyone. He simply cooperated when confronted by federal investigators many months after the Balco [Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative] case began.

'Although Marion Jones and her agents continue to malign him, Mr Hunter has never publicly commented about anything involving her.'

Jones continues to be under investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, but has not been charged. Nor is she likely to be before the Olympics, as the USADA does not want to risk proceedings starting before having complete evidence that might become available as its own and the federal investigation continue into Balco, the laboratory that allegedly supplied drugs to elite athletes.

Jones will face trial by media, however, when she arrives in London to compete in Friday's Norwich Union British grand prix at Crystal Palace, where she is to run the 100 metres. 'I have no reason to expect she won't be coming,' said Steve Chisholm, a spokesman for the organisers Fast Track. 'We follow the lead of the sport's governing bodies. Unless she is charged she is free to compete.'

As she did during a visit to Gateshead last month, Jones has refused all requests for interviews despite the fact she is receiving a six-figure fee to compete. The only organisation she spoke to was BBC Television and afterwards Fast Track spirited her away. 'We have asked her to do a press conference but she said no,' said Chisholm. 'But I would hope she would pass through the mixed zone [the area where athletes come off the track and journalists wait to speak to them] and talk to the press.'

According to Hunter, the drugs Jones took included the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), the endurance-boosting erythropoetin (EPO), insulin and human-growth hormone. Intriguingly, Ben Johnson's former coach Charlie Francis described such a doping regime in an article he wrote for Testosterone Magazine in 2002.

At the time the Canadian was secretly working with Tim Montgomery, now Jones's partner and the father of her child, after he had split with a former coach, Trevor Graham, who was also coaching Jones at the time she won a record five medals at the Sydney Olympics, including golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay.

'To give you an idea of the scope of the drug use of top athletes today, I'll give you the protocol for one top sprint group, as revealed by a defector,' Francis wrote in his article. 'The athletes were using a 12-week administration of [steroids] Anavar and Halotestin as well as GH (growth hormone), injections of ATP, AMP with embryonic calf cell preparation 3x/week, insulin as well as EPO. Yes, they even use EPO in the 100 meters!'

After becoming romantically involved with Montgomery, who in 2002 set a world 100m record of 9.78sec, Jones also linked up with Francis. Pressure from their sponsors, Nike, forced her and Montgomery to end the coaching relationship.

Montgomery is facing a life ban after being charged by USADA with doping violations. He has never failed a test, but allegedly admitted under oath that he took THG and HGH. To have one man in your life banned for drugs is unfortunate. To have two would be careless.